Reviews by DefenCorps:

After sailing from Annapolis to Solomons and sleeping on the deck of a Beneteau 44.7, there's nothing quite like finding out that there's a local brewpub, one that's been on my radar, up the street from. the marina. The Ruddy Duck is located right next to the Hilton Garden Inn in Solomons, right off Rt 4 (and 2). With a nice looking bar and a large dining area, this place had a nice vibe. Atmosphere? It's hard to judge in a non-touristy area at 11AM, but it did have a bit of a sports bar vibe.As far as beers, they had 7 house beers on tap of which I tried 6. All were decent to good, with the IPA and Imperial Stout being quite good. Glasses were clean, and it seemed like the lines were clean as well. In addition, they had a couple of other guest beers including some stuff from Clipper City, so it was nice to see all that MD-brewed beer in one place. Quite clearly a young establishment, the beers do have rough edges on them. They also had the lite beer trifecta - BMC light/lite - in bottles, as well as Corona. Service was top notch and our waitress made sure to check on us quite often, dutifully refilling our glasses of water.

The food was quite excellent. I had the cream of spinach soup which was very, very flavorful and top notch, as well as the crab cake sandwich, which at $19 was pushing it, but it truly was one of the best I've had. Incredibly fresh and flavorful crab, no filler, not greasy, not overly seasoned, all of which really helped one appreciate the freshness of the ingredients. For the quality, the price is quite reasonable. And the beers are decently priced too, $4.50 -$5 for a pint (or 12oz glass of the high ABV stuff). If you are in the area, I highly recommend stopping by.

More User Reviews:

4.5/5 rDev +9.2%

Stopped in for dinner on a saturday night with my sister while visiting the area... despite the busy weekend dinner rush, we were promptly seated and the wait staff were very attentive. This establishment brews in-house, and all the waitresses are very knowledgeable about the various styles and what they pair with, food wise. The styles on the menu kind of run the gamut from pasta and sandwiches to steaks and seafood.

For appetizers we had a spinach and artichoke dip with crabmeat, accompanied by bread. Both the dip and the bread were excellent. Dinner for me was the "Steak and Cake" (a 12oz ribeye with a crabcake, with garlic mashed potatoes and mixed vegetable sides.) The steak was ordered medium rare, and came back just right (it's not a hugely thick steak so getting it right speaks well of whoever's manning the grill.) As for the crabcake, it's not huge but it is all jumbo lump meat, with no fillers, and perfectly cooked. Maybe not the BEST crabcake I've had, but it's high on the list. My sister had beer and bratwurst with sauerkraut, and while I didn't sample she reported it was excellent. Portions were fairly generous... there was definitely no room for desert.

The main beers on tap include a Helles, an IPA, a blonde ale called 'Rud Light', a Festbier (as we visited in october) and a few others. I had the helles, which I shall give it's own review later (spoiler alert: it's quite good.) Sis had a hazelnut porter on the recommendation of a friend... despite the fact she's not a beer person, she loved it. You can also buy a growler at the bar and get it filled from the tap for about 40 bucks, and then get it filled anytime after for $13-17. They also have a bar and a full menu of mixed drinks. Only criticism I could offer on this end would be the lack of an option for tasting sizes on their beers... given the many different styles they offer this seems like it should be something they should consider.

Prices I would say are moderate-high... 2 beers, appetizer, and two dinners for the two of us ran about eighty bucks, most of that being due to the market price of crabmeat in the case of mine.

All in all I'm impressed... it's a bit too pricey to eat there all the time, but definitely worth the money for a treat every once in a while. Even if you don't come for the food, the beer is worth checking out.

Stop by for lunch on a Sunday before I check in to my hotel room. not much going on when I arrived. sat at the bar my bartender was very friendly and helpful. I chose a beer , A hammerhead Red. order a French Dip, Very good. Would return here if I'm in the area. good place to stop before a concert at the museum.

This place is about 5 minutes from my house, and right across the street from my volunteer occupation (firehouse). I haven't eaten there but a few times, but every time has been excellent. The last time I went I noticed they had an on tap sampler. I immediately ordered one, leaving out the light beer offered (I don't typically do light beer). All of the sampler was good, and I believe I ordered a few full pints of the best two. The food is always good (I second the fish and chips! Fantastic!)

Prices I'd say are between "reasonable" to "a bit pricey" depending on what you're ordering. Their selection is pretty good, but almost feels like they're trying to be more gourmet than they really are (if that makes sense).

If you get a chance to come to the southern Calvert County region of Maryland, I suggest eating there at least once. We have a few good seafood type places, but its the only place in the area that brews its own beer. Definitely recommended.

This is pretty much the only place in the tri-county area that brews its own beer, and they offer a nice selection of food, so why not come here?

Coming here, it looked fairly clean overall. The layout was simple yet effective, and it was set up nicely. I do have to say, though, the waitress we got wasn't that good. She seemed a little inexperienced, and there were several instances she forgot about us.

I liked the food overall. I wasn't too impressed with the appetizer of potato skins (keep in mind, I omitted the bacon, 'cause I don't like it), but I really liked the fish and chips entree I ordered. The beers on the whole were pretty good; some were better than others, though I do think I should have ordered the Helles instead of the IPA to go alongside my dinner.

Visiting the fiance' in MD and we decided to stop here after touring the lighthouse that was in the area.

The atmosphere is typical sportsbar fare, but that's not a bad thing. This would actually be a really fun place to come and watch some football games. The server was nice and friendly, and recommended the stout as their best beer. The beer selection as a whole was mostly their own brews, with a couple of guest craft taps, but nothing that blew your socks off. The beers themselves were not bad, they showed some potential, but not world beaters. I could drink them and not have any complaints though. Food was outstanding, we ordered a couple of appetizers including the spinach dip, and it was great stuff. Pricing was exceptionally reasonable for the food, and I got a great flight of all the beers for only 5 bucks, which I thought was a steal.

If you're in the area, this isn't a bad place to swing by, as it seems they change their beers fairly regularly. I'd also really recommend giving it a try during football season.

If you find yourself in southern Maryland and looking for a good beer, the Ruddy Duck is a diamond in the rough.

The waitstaff, bartenders, and owner, Carlos, do an outstanding job making you feel welcome and getting you what you want when you want it.

There is always a collection of 6 or so house brews on tap. New this week is an excellent Irish Stout in time for St. Patrick's Day in addition to the Helles, Pale Ale, and Barley Wine (running out...better hurry). The Irish Stout was as dark as a moonless midnight with a smooth finish and creamy head. I combined it with a Popeye's Pizza that was a tasty combination of spinach, goat cheese, and mozzerella over a tomato sauce and a really, really good thin crust, baked to perfection.

Since The Duck is on my way home every day, it is now a regular stop on Friday afternoon after working out to round out the work week.

My wife and I chose to come here for our weekend drive "destination". I'd have to say that we chose well.

As we typically do, we sat at the bar and ordered the sampler. Our muscle-bound barkeep was very friendly and chatty without bogging us down with his life story. Perfect. The bar was almost empty with just one other couple at the bar, and maybe two families at the tables. It was, after all, about 1 p.m. on a Saturday.

The beer sampler was pretty good. I didn't care for the Märzen, but that is probably only because I'm used to the one at Gordon Biersch...so no fault of their own. Funny that is their beer that won all of the awards. Anyhow, I really enjoyed the Pale, IPA, Oatmeal Stout and Barley Wine, while I thought the Helles was the best of the bunch. I ended up getting a pint of the Helles with our potato chip nachos (awesome), and a glass of the Barley Wine with our goat cheese pizza.

Overall I thought the food was prepared well and the ingredients tasted fresh. One of these days I should just start walking back into the kitchen like I own the place. I'm so interested in how people are preparing food these days. The beers were good and I'm glad the 'tender laughed a bit when someone ordered a miller lite.

I went to NAS PAX River on business and visited this place after reading about it in the Mid-Atlantic Brewing News. And then I returned the follwing night.

The beers are solid. Their IPA was my favorite, generously dry hopped with Ammarillo and Cenntenial hopps. I was also very impressed with their Belgian Double, it had a nice roasted taste with an noticable but balanced hop flavor. Additionally they had a really nice selection of 'guest' beers on tap as well as a good selection of bottles.

The food was of similar quality. On my first visit I had a roasted duck quesdilla, very good and very genorous with the duck. Then second night I had a 'Dude, Be Serious' Pizza made with prosciutto, blue cheese, and roasted onions, also very very good. Both nights I had an order of Cipas al a Carlos, a traditional South American cheese bread. I have had Chipas before while visiting Brazil, and the Ruddy Duck serves some of the best.

I highly recommend this pub to anyone that loves good beer and eqully good food.

Visited the new Ruddy Duck over the July 4 weekend because they were offering a great deal: buy one beer get the second for one penny. Hopefully they will continue to have deals like this one in the future.

The building was impossible to miss as it looms just off the main road. Everything in the building was very clean and modern, as you would expect from a new restaurant. There were a few flat-screens around the dining room, but not so many as to be distracting. There was even one above the urinals in the men's room, which I particularly enjoyed.

Despite being only lunch time and the dining room being only half full, the restaurant was very noisy. I think the volume level could be an issue when the restaurant is full if you're trying to have a conversation.

We sat on the patio for our lunch. It is very small with only about a dozen tables. The patio was also situated right next to the road. Like the dining room noise issue, this may be more annoying on a busy day, but we did not have any issues.

At the time of our visit, they only had four of their own beers on tap, but also offered a number of other brews on tap that were of good quality. They also offered free samples of any of their beers. Our waitress said that the sampler trays were not ready yet, so it sounds like they may start charging for this in the future.

Although I would not make a special trip to visit this brewpub because it can be a bit out of the way, if you are already in the area I would recommend Ruddy Duck was a nice place to visit for decent food and beer.